"Good deed" doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as “pay back,” and that’s too bad. In a world where it’s all about the payback, there may be a way to counter the status quo and achieve a more positive karma. But how can one person do such a thing? Simple: The next time someone asks what she can do to pay you back, ask her to pay it forward...

Changing the world is no small order, but what if it isn’t all that impossible? There are numerous quotes reaffirming the idea that if you want to change the world, you have to start by changing yourself, but what does that mean? Some people get the idea that only a celebrity concert or popular TV show could reach the masses with a positive message.

The overwhelming realization that this may never be their reality brings a feeling of resignation; they drop their dreams and go back to life as usual. But what if it is much simpler? What if you really can look inside and affect change? If you are interested in such an idea, this is a great place to start.

Essentially, the concept of “pay it forward” consists of paying someone else (a third party) with a good deed for what another has done for you. When the third party asks how he can pay you back, ask him to help someone else in need, or pay it forward.

This ends up helping a different person every time and keeps the good energy flowing forward, generating more and more good deeds ahead. You may never know how far the chain gets, and how many lives it touches, but as Mother Teresa once said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

Pay It Forward Gains Publicity

It may seem an anonymous deed in the scope of the world, but if you asked each person to help three people for the favor you did them, the numbers would start to multiply exponentially. This was exactly the idea behind Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book, Pay It Forward (2000). In her fiction tale, 12-year-old Travis takes his teacher’s extra-credit assignment about changing the world to heart.

For his project, Travis devises a plan to do a good deed for three people. In return he requests only that those three people do a good deed for three people. In this way, the people pay the favors forward, requesting those nine people do a good deed for three people each, moving the number to 27. When Trevor and his teacher think about the calculations, they realize that the number gets into the thousands, millions and hopefully, beyond.

After the popularity of her book, Hyde started the Pay It Forward Foundation to help teach children, adults and educators how they can help change the world.

Sound like too little of an idea to have worldwide appeal? Hardly. That same year the book was made into a movie, and the Warner Brother’s film, Pay It Forward, starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment was released to audiences worldwide.

Paying It Forward, From the Past

Hyde wasn’t the first person to create the concept, however. The idea was used as early as 1784 by Benjamin Franklin. In one of his letters to editor and historian Benjamin Webb, dated April 22, he wrote:

I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you. When you […] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with an opportunity.

The idea appears again in Robert A. Heinlein’s science-fiction book Between Planets (1951); he is largely credited for coining the term.In the story, protagonist Don accepts a much-needed favor (credit) from a banker and says, “I’ll pay it back, first chance.” The banker responds, “Instead, pay it forward to some other brother who needs it.”

Just as Hyde’s book inspired a social movement, so did Heinlein’s. The author was said to practice the pay-it-forward philosophy and was honored with the formation of a humanitarian organization, The Heinlein Society, which was founded by his wife Virginia to “pay forward” the legacy of the writer to others.

People Paying It ForwardHow can you get in the game? Try practicing the pay-it-forward philosophy in your own life. Still not sure how to do it? These resources may help motivate you:

* PayItForwardFoundation.org is the website started by author Catherine Ryan Hyde and the Pay It Forward Foundation. Here you will find classroom resources, tips for starting your own pay-it-forward revolution, bumper stickers, wristbands and links to other informative do-good websites.

If you are a teacher, use these resources to start a yearly pay-it-forward project in your classroom. Perhaps it will catch on to the whole school, community and who knows, maybe some future teachers in your class may take the project to their own students some day. You can then post your stories on PayItForwardMovement.org to share with the world. Now that is truly a good chain to create!

You don’t have to be a teacher to touch lives—start your own pay it forward group with friends, family members and the children in your life. There are no specific rules to follow; the key is to get started.

* The Residence Hall Association of Syracuse University started a Pay It Forward Campaign to help increase community service efforts on and off campus. Can you take this to your school or your child’s? Are you an alumna or alumnus who can suggest a pay-it-forward program to your former alma mater?

* The ever-charitable Oprah Winfrey started a Pay It Forward Challenge in 2006, giving audience members $1,000 and a camcorder to record how they used the money for acts of kindness. Could this help generate ideas for your own family or community?

What’s Important to You? The act of paying it forward is about much more than a book or movie; at the end of the day, it’s about being nice. Winn Claybaugh, the founder of Paul Mitchell The School and author of Be Nice (Or Else!) says that being nice is not a trait passed on genetically.

“Being nice is an ongoing, lifelong course,” Claybaugh wrote. “You never get to stop learning what it means and what it takes to be nice, but it’s well worth the effort because being nice can bring you rewards you never imagined.”

By now we have all learned that along with spiritual significance, there are also obvious health benefits to being nice. More than that, it gives us a feeling of happiness when we know we’ve done something good for another. This feeling cannot be matched or sustained by the accumulation of any material possession; it comes solely from the free act of goodwill and love. At the end of your life, will you reflect upon the number of dollars you accrued, or the number of lives you touched? Will you be remembered as a person who kept score, or paid it forward?

Hyde’s message is an example of how one person can end up touching thousands, even millions of people without being rich, famous, educated, or popular. “I didn’t write the novel expecting social movement,” writes Hyde on PayItForwardFoundation.org, “but [it’s] certainly been exciting to watch it grow.” If her story is any example to the rest of us, perhaps paying it forward ends up “paying it back” more than we truly realize.

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